Conference: Windows on the Universe: Establishing the Infrastructure for a Collaborative Multi-messenger Ecosystem

The proposed conference, to be held on October 16-18 in Tucson AZ, will bring together government agencies and expert scientists in the field of Multi-Messenger Astronomy (MMA) electromagnetic follow-up. Sessions will focus on identifying pathways that increase the coordination of follow-up MMA campaigns, reducing operational redundancy across the network of ground- and space-based observatories, and fostering collaboration in the MMA community.

The community will be invited to review the current state of follow-up resources, report on existing collaborations and partnerships, and identify potential obstacles to success. The conference will develop concrete ideas that will be disseminated within a public white paper. The findings of the conference will help develop the scope of an FY2024 NSF solicitation dedicated to funding coordination infrastructure and efforts among the follow-up community.

This proposal requests funding to host the workshop and to support participant attendance across multiple fields in the MMA community. All conference participants are required to read and agree to the ISEE code of conduct that outlines expectations for behavior and confidential and non-confidential reporting options for anyone who experiences misconduct.

With gravitational-wave and particle detectors now routinely observing events through new windows upon our dynamic Universe, we have entered the era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy. We have advanced resources to both identify the electromagnetic counterparts of Multi-Messenger events and then monitor and characterize their evolution. This activity requires coordination of the full range of available telescopes and their capabilities.

While the scientific potential is staggering, future campaigns will be resource-intensive, expensive, and require considerable coordination, collaboration, and communication among the communities in order to deliver effective science. Motivated to foster effective Multi-Messenger follow-up, Organizers will invite the international observing community to participate in an open workshop.

Organizers will ask the workshop participants to conceptualize community strategies and methods of tackling data sharing - i.e., telescope pointing plans, both planned and executed, observation outcomes, and calibrated data etc. Furthermore, we ask the workshop participants to identify pathways which will incentivize coordination, collaboration, partnership, and collegiality within the MMA community.

This proposal requests funding to host a three-day workshop, limited in number to no more than 90 people. The requested funding would support the costs of a meeting venue (including hybrid capability, provide travel support for a subset of the participants, and meals for all attendees.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.